March 9, 2016

The Miami Herald

For the past year, the leading Republican presidential candidates have drawn a hardline on deporting illegal immigrants — especially front-runner Donald Trump, who has promised to build a towering wall along the U.S.-Mexican border to stop others from crossing.

But none of them has ever mentioned another thorny immigration issue that hits closest to home in Miami: What to do with 28,400 Cuban nationals convicted of crimes — including more than 2,000 murders — who have served their prison terms and face automatic deportations to Cuba under U.S. law?

For decades they have been allowed to live in Florida and other parts of the United States under the supervision of immigration authorities because the federal government has had no diplomatic relations with Cuba since the early 1960s. Of the total facing deportations, some 18,000 live in Florida...